Month: March 2016

Epic Games certainly don’t do things by halves. The creators of the popular Unreal Engine have just released the latest iterration of Unreal Engine 4, bringing the software to version 4.11 and the update is extensive before even getting to that related to VR. Covering virtually all areas of existing support and continuing to develop…

Starbreeze Studios is investing $750,000 in Freeform Studios; the California based developer behind the ElemenTerra VR experience. Per the terms of the deal, Starbreeze will finance the ElemenTerra’s development. Upon release, the company will be entitled to 50% of the game’s lifetime revenue. Both Starbreeze and Freeform now own 50% of ElemenTerra’s intellectual property rights apiece. ElemenTerra…

While the first high end consumer virtual reality headsets are just beginning to launch, virtual worlds have been around for years. Although they may not be immersive in the sense of VR, they are undeniably complex and engaging, as illustrated in the record-breaking Battle of M-OEE8 which took place in EVE: Online on the same day the Oculus…

Studio: Frontier Developments Platform: Oculus Rift (reviewed) and HTC Vive (coming soon) Price: $59.99 Deluxe Edition (previous owners can redeem Rift version for free) Release Date: March 28th, 2016 Let’s get this out of the way at the very start: other than the fact that Elite: Dangerous and EVE: Valkyrie both feature names with colons…

Virtual reality (VR) has a number of players fighting and working together to come out top, especially with the latest launches of the Oculus Rift and soon the HTC Vive, but the main runner in the game of augmented reality (AR) seems to be Microsoft with its HoloLens with a couple others in its shadow….

The chances are if you’re an Oculus Rift pre-orderer you’re still waiting on your device to ship. It could be that you’re waiting all the way up until July 2016. Those that have pre-ordered the kit’s main rival, the HTC Vive, hopefully won’t be waiting as long, though. The virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD)…

For some time now including more recently a press release tying in with the product’s launch on Oculus Rift and even within a recent interview had with VRFocus, ADR1FT developers Three One Zero and publishers 505 Games have mentioned that their outer space narrative-driven experience – an Oculus Rift launch title no less – would…

For many VR purists, PlayStation VR is held back by the console it supports, PlayStation 4, which lags behind the PCs powering the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. But this might not be an issue for long. In a recent interview with Nikkei, as translated by Reddit user MSDefenseForce, Sony Computer Entertainment executive vice president…

It was only a few days ago that Light Repair Team #4 was confirmed as an official HTC Vive launch title, which will be arriving next Tuesday. Eerie Bear Games has now released the official launch trailer on top of its Steam trailer, with a number of puzzles promised for the launch, and has announced…

Oculus Chief Scientist Michael Abrash marked the shipping of Oculus Rift this week with hints about what’s next for virtual reality. Abrash was hired away from Valve Software amid the acquisition of Oculus by Facebook in 2014, saying at the time: Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus means that VR is going to happen in all its glory….

The Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD) may have launched earlier this week, but only for a select few. People that backed the kit’s crowd-funding campaign all the way back in 2012 should be receiving their free units now, though it appears those that pre-ordered the device early will have to wait at…

It’s been known since early 2016 that HTC planned to integrate bluetooth into the Vive headset to allow your phone to talk to the headset while you’re in VR, but we didn’t know what platforms or specific functionality would be supported. Now with the launch of the HTC Vive app on iOS, the answer is…

Last year, VRFocus reported on the formation of a new developer that would be working exclusively with mixed reality (MR) technology such as Microsoft’s HoloLens head-mounted display (HMD). Named Object Theory, the studio confirmed that it was already working on some projects for the device, though couldn’t reveal any details about these at that point…

Some people may remember when Sat Navs and Lane Departure Systems were the newest technology, but now with the latest development in augmented reality (AR) it makes old technology’s inaccuracies stick out like a sore thumb. Toyota’s recent patent reveals that the car makers are taking on display real-time lane positioning information with its AR…

Everyone knew that, sooner or later, the Oculus Rift head-mounted display (HMD) was going to have some serious competition. Few would have guessed, however, that such a rivalry would come so early on and from a company that had once closely collaborated with creator Oculus VR, Valve. It was over a year ago now that…

Many of Sony Computer Entertainment’s (SCE’s) first-party developers have already embraced the PlayStation VR virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD) for PlayStation 4. SCE London is arguably leading the charge with PlayStation VR Worlds, while Guerrilla Cambridge continues work on RIGS: Mechanized Combat League and both Media Molecule and Polyphony Digital are integrating support for…

Although Valve has buddied up with HTC to create the Vive as SteamVR’s flagship headset, the company has made it clear that they want SteamVR to be headset agnostic. Now Steam is identifying Rift users and prompting them to install SteamVR. The Oculus Rift DK2 was actually one of the first headsets to see support for…

When World War Toons was announced it was clear that Reload Studios had its sights set on creating a fully immersive virtual reality (VR) first-person shooter (FPS). It has now been revealed by the team who developed World War Toons that before VR was an option, the title was initially intended for the Nintendo DS….

There’s no shortage of humorous gameplay footage when it comes to Job Simulator, from munching on donuts to stapling the coffee machine, but it has all been from limited points of view. Owlchemy, developers of the exclusively virtual reality (VR) title, has now developed a new social way to share gameplay with Spectator Mode. During…

Indie studio Lucid Sight has a lot going on the in virtual reality (VR) space at the moment. The developer has already released two titles for the Gear VR mobile-based head-mounted display (HMD) in PolyRunner VR and this month’s Gumi no Yume, but that’s far from all it has in the pipeline. This week the developer…

As mentioned yesterday people are using 360 degree video for all sorts of things; for education, for information, for leisure and travel and for entertainment. Sometimes the use of this, if honest, doesn’t work. The addition of 360 degree filming doesn’t bring anything ‘extra’ to the table. Filming a stage at an award show or…

Job SummaryFuturetown is looking for a Senior .NET Engineer with experience in achitecture and development of client-server solutions. The candidate…
Source: Senior .NET Engineer at Futuretown (Vancouver, BC, Canada)

Job SummaryAre you passionate about building and inspiring art teams to make cool Virtual Reality games? Are you skilled in all aspects of art…
Source: Lead Aritist at Futuretown (Vancouver, BC, Canada)

The Playstation VR core system today became available for pre-order. The $399 Playstation 4 accessory costs and officially launches in October of this year. The pre-order is available now from several major retailers including Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Gamestop. Your $400 dollar investment here will only grant you the actual headset, necessary cables, and…

Now you can save a kitty from a skyscraper ledge or pilot a giant robot in VR. We’ve had our minds blown at The Void in Utah and were hyped to hear Starbreeze is bringing a VR arcade to our home here in Los Angeles. Now Bandai Namco announced that they’re opening a virtual reality…

I got the first glimpse of what advertising within a VR experience might look like when I saw a demo of some ads playing on the Immersv platform. I was within an movie theater similar to Oculus Cinema watching a 2D video screen where there was a 30-second video of a VR game being advertised….

It’s a busy day for Microsoft’s HoloLens mixed reality (MR) head-mounted display (HMD). Not only is the developer edition of the device finally shipping to the US and Canada, but it’s also been showcased once more at the 2016 Build developer conference. Microsoft talked about the kit at the event’s keynote earlier today, but some…

If you’ve never heard of Phil Tippett you’ll have more than likely seen his work. Tippett is a 2-time Academy Award winning Visual Effects Supervisor and Director who’s worked on the original Star Wars trilogy, Jurassic Park, Robocop and The Force Awakens to name a few. He also created the “Holo Chess” scene from Star Wars, and now, in collaboration with…

Taking place in Cannes, France between 4th – 7th April is MIPTV, a leading television and digital content market. Being shown at the event are three Canadian virtual reality (VR) productions, Liquid Cinema, Time Machine VR and The Unknown Photographer. Thanks to an initiative spearheaded by the Canada Media Fund (CMF) and Telefilm Canada, Canadian VR producers will have the opportunity to share their…

If you’ve been following VRFocus over the last few months then you may have read about Galaxy Explorer the winning idea in Microsoft’s ‘Share Your Idea’ competition which launched late last year for HoloLens. Since the competition closed in January a team at Microsoft has been developing Galaxy Explorer into a fully fledged app, posting…